London: a question
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- ninjasavant
Why do bars close at 11? Why are bartenders so rude about it?
I'm here in London and just as the night seems to be kicking into gear the bartender is yelling "finish your drinks" from the bar and looking pissed that you even showed up to begin with. I've found ample complaining about the topic but no real explanation for it. Whats the deal?
I remember moving from upstate NY to Cali and thinking it was annoying when the bar called last call at 1:30 and kicked everyone out at 1:35. In London it seems to be worse. I don't get it. Anyone know what the reason is?
- NewElpaso0
so everyone gets the last tube?
or so that you fell pressured into buying more so you can drink more in the little time you have out..
or cause most english girls dont take THAT long to pick up...
its gotta be one of them..
- ninjasavant0
I'm glad my girlfriend is with me because I don't think I have enough game to work that quickly . . .
- oozie0
i was amazed that i could drink on the street and jamaicans kept asking me if i wanted skunk. must be a different london.
- Jnr_Madison0
Edinburgh doesn't really have this problem. You will be able to find other bars open late though.
- oozie0
it's only certain places i'm sure cuz i was drinking all friggin night the few nights i spent there
- Samush0
in the UK the law allows bars and pubs to stay open as long as they want, 24 hours if they so wish. the plan was to help the binge drinking problems we have, hasn't worked, statistically more woman have got into alcohol related violence since the law changed.
maybe the bars shut cos the staff can't be bothered working anymore.
- MSTRPLN0
Because people there drink all day.
- ninjasavant0
Here's what I found out. Pubs are only open to 11 but bars with extended licenses can be open until whenever. So tonight I was in Soho getting proper till late.
- olli1010
Via our friends at Wikipedia: (never had a problem with the 11pm thing in London, there are always "lock-in's" or well....Soho)
K opening hours and regulation
Main article: Licensing laws of the United Kingdom
From the middle of the 19th century restrictions were placed on the opening hours of licensed premises in the UK. These culminated in the Defence of the Realm Act[10] of August 1914, which, along with the introduction of rationing and the censorship of the press, also restricted the opening hours of public houses to 12noon–2.30pm and 6.30pm–9.30pm. Opening for the full licensed hours was compulsory, and closing time was equally firmly enforced by the police; a landlord might lose his licence for infractions. There was a special case established under the State Management Scheme[11] where the brewery and licensed premises were bought and run by the state until 1973, most notably in the Carlisle District. During the twentieth century elsewhere, both the licensing laws and enforcement were progressively relaxed, and there were differences between parishes; in the 1960s, at closing time in Kensington at 10.30pm, drinkers would rush over the parish boundary to be in good time for "Last Orders" in Knightsbridge before 11pm, a tradition observed in many pubs adjoining licensing area boundaries. Some Scots and Welsh parishes remained officially "dry" on Sundays (although often this merely required knocking at the back door of the pub). However, closing times were increasingly disregarded in the country pubs. In England and Wales by 2000 pubs could legally open from 11am (12 noon on Sundays) through to 11pm (10.30pm on Sundays). That year was also the first to allow continuous opening for 36 hours from 11am on New Year's Eve to 11pm on New Year's Day. In addition, many cities had by-laws to allow some pubs to extend opening hours to midnight or 1am, whilst nightclubs had long been granted late licences to serve alcohol into the morning. Pubs in the immediate vicinity of London's Smithfield meat market, Billingsgate fish market and Covent Garden fruit and flower market were permitted to stay open 24 hours a day since Victorian times to provide a service to the shift working employees of the markets.
Scotland's and Northern Ireland's licensing laws have long been more flexible, allowing local authorities to set pub opening and closing times. In Scotland, this stemmed out of a late repeal of the wartime licensing laws, which stayed in force until 1976.
The Licensing Act 2003[12], which came into force on November 24, 2005, aimed to consolidate the many laws into a single act. This now allows pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local authority for opening hours of their choice. Supporters at the time argued that it would end the concentration of violence around half past 11, when people had to leave the pub, making policing easier. In practice, alcohol-related hospital admissions rose following the change in the law, with alcohol involved in 207,800 admissions in 2006/7[13]. Critics claimed that these laws will lead to '24-hour drinking'. By the day before the law came into force, 60,326 establishments had applied for longer hours, and 1,121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. However, nine months after the act many pubs had not changed their hours, although there is a growing tendency for some to be open longer at the weekend but rarely beyond 1:00am.